CIA apologizes for hacking of Senate committee computers

Associated Press

Updated 10:44 pm, Thursday, July 31, 2014

Washington --

CIA officers improperly accessed Senate computers, read the e-mails of Senate staff, and exhibited a "lack of candor" when interviewed by agency investigators, according to a declassified CIA inspector general's report.

The document, released Thursday by the CIA, is a summary of an internal CIA investigation that prompted CIA Director John Brennan to abandon his defiant posture in the matter and apologize to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders.

Brennan has convened an internal accountability board led by former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., that will examine whether the CIA officers should be disciplined, said his spokesman, Dean Boyd.

The agency officers searched Senate computers without permission for information gathered in the course of a Senate investigation into the CIA's interrogation techniques. The summary of a classified report on post-9/11 detentions and interrogations that accuses the CIA of misconduct is expected to be made public soon.

Five agency employees improperly accessed Senate computers in an effort to track down documents, the inspector general found. Then, after Brennan ordered a halt to the review, the CIA office of security began a "limited investigation" that led to surveillance of Senate e-mails, the report said.

Three information technology staff "demonstrated a lack of candor about their activities" in interviews with CIA investigators, the report said.

The CIA inspector general shared his findings with the Justice Department, which has so far declined to pursue criminal charges against the CIA employees, officials said.

The inspector general concluded "that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between" the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA in 2009, Boyd said.